


Day 6: Like a Galra Soldier

by GemmaRose



Series: Galra Keith Week [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Mentions of Other Voltron Paladins, Sparring, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 19:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9340958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: In which Allura watches her Paladins train, and muses on their skills.





	

Allura’s eyes flicked between the Paladins, each fighting a separate training dummy. Or, well, most of them were still fighting. Lance was already down for the count. He relied too heavily on his bayard and his fellow Paladins, she would need to make him do more unarmed combat drills in the future. Pidge was baiting their robot into punching the force field walls which cordoned off the individual training areas, slowly but surely building up enough static in its system to overload it. They were even having a casual conversation with Hunk in the next area. He’d pulled the leg off one of the recent dummies, and was now using it as a bludgeoning weapon. Good, improvisation was a vital skill which could save a life in the field.

Shiro, unsurprisingly, had dispatched the largest number of robots so far. He had a full year of combat experience over the other Paladins, and it showed in the surety of his movements. He was only just starting to show signs of exhaustion. And between Shiro and Lance, in the final section of the circle, was Keith. His numbers were almost as high as Shiro’s, though the dummies were of a lower level since Shiro’s had started at a higher difficulty. He circled the robots, gloved hands raised in fists, eyes narrowed in concentration. It was a familiar sight, and not just because she’d been watching her Paladins work through increasingly skilled training dummies for nearly a tock now.

She knew that stance from somewhere, though. Or, no, not the stance but the motion itself. The smooth slide of foot over floor, weight balanced almost on the toes themselves. The looseness of his limbs, ready to dive or bolt in any direction. If he had more expressive ears, they surely would’ve been primed towards his target, picking up as much as possible.

Carninon, she realized as Keith ducked the robot’s swing and rolled between its legs, popping back up to his feet behind it to plant a heel on its ass and send it headfirst into the force field wall. Carinon, and Zarkon. The technique had been much more pronounced in Zarkon’s fighting style, as he had been trained in the galran military, but even Carinon had known the steps, and he trained solely on Altea. It was like a genetic memory, like how even a riphor raised in isolation would know how to hunt its own prey.

Keith grinned as the next dummy dropped down to face him, the tip of his first tertiary tooth catching the light, and Allura wondered how it had taken so long to realize her Red Paladin’s true heritage. On the surface he seemed human enough, but the more she watched him the more superficial it appeared. He’d been taught how to fight by humans, that much was clear just comparing his moves to those of the other Paladins, but the way he executed those moves was vastly different.

Shiro’s blows were smooth and sure, the strikes of a well-practiced gladiator who fought with honour. Lance and Hunk still flinched when they struck their automated enemies, and as a result their blows were hesitant, weak compared to their full potential. Pidge’s strikes were vicious, calculated, but they were hesitant to strike at all, instead utilizing evasive tactics which had the enemy destroying themselves without the Green Paladin needing to lift a finger, save perhaps for the final blow.

And then there was Keith. Keith, who had no combat experience prior to becoming a Paladin but still struck without hesitation or fear, holding nothing back. His attacks were brutal, coldly effective without any regard for propriety or the rules of combat. He fought like his enemy was prey, and it showed in the record of damages dealt to his robotic combatants. Allura had no doubt that, had he possessed claws, the training dummies dropping from his area would’ve been rent savagely open across the chest and face.

Keith threw his dummy into the wall hard enough to force it to short out, and grinned as he wiped sweat from his forehead. Allura felt a smile play across her own face, and did a quick scan of the other Paladins’ progress on the screen in front of her. The other Paladins might try to convince Keith that his blood didn’t make him a monster, but she knew better. Keith was exactly the kind of monster they needed on their side, if they wanted to win the battles ahead.


End file.
